A simple and sensitive method for the determination of residual Nicarbazin (NCZ) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was examined to apply to livestock products. And the detection of residual NCZ in commercial chickens was also investigated.
1. The method that the acetonitrile extracts of meat homogenate were injected directly into HPLC was able to apply to determine the residual NCZ by adding process of degreasing and dehydration of the extracts. The average recovery of NCZ added to the chicken muscle (0.4 μg/g) were 89.13±6.61%(N =5) and detection limit in this analytical procedure was 0.02μg/g.
2. Using the above method for the analysis of NCZ in commercial samples, the frequency of detection was 13.0% and the range of concentration was 0.03-0.30μg/g in samples collected from Kagoshima city (N =131). The residual NCZ in commercial chickens showed a tendency to increase in summer season. The similar levels of frequency (12.5%) and concentrations (0.03-0.43μg/g) were found in samples collected from other prefectures (N=40).

A 79-year-old man underwent aortic valve replacement by xenografts for active infective endocarditis with aortic regurgitation. Two months later, he developed congestive heart failure and uncontrolled infective endocarditis. The second operation was performed 3 months later, with an aortic valve translocation procedure because of aortic regurgitation due to aortic root abscess and prosthetic valve endocarditis. Six months after the second operation, the saphenous vein graft (SVG) to the left coronary artery (LAD) revealed a severe stenotic lesion at the proximal site. The stenotic vein graft fed almost the entire left coronary circulation. The third operation was performed via left thoracotomy, under hypothermic circulatory arrest with cardiopulmonary bypass. A new radial artery (RA) graft was anastomosed between the descending thoracic artery and the old SVG for LAD. The patient recovered without any major complications and postoperative angiography showed that the new RA graft was patent.

A 30-year-old man with a fever, cough, and dyspnea, was admitted to our hospital. A ruptured aneurysm of the Valsalva sinus (Konno classification, type I) was diagnosed associated with infective endocarditis of the aortic valve accompanied by aortic regurgitation (AR, grade II), and a ventricular septal defect (VSD, subarterial type). The operation was performed as follows: the removal of the aortic and pulmonary valves involved with endocarditis, the resection of the right aneurysm of the Valsalva sinus, and the myectomy of the fragile tissue of the right ventricle around the VSD. As a result, the large deficit region with the VSD and the resected right Valsalva sinus was patched with double sheets of equine pericardium. Aortic valve replacement (a prosthetic valve, ATS 18 AP) was anastomozed to the closed patch with the aid of the sheet as a part of the aortic valvular ring, and pulmonary valve replacement (a prosthetic valve, ATS 23 A) was done to the native pulmonary valvular site. During the 13 months after the surgery, under strict control of warfarin administration, the patient's clinical outcome has been favorable without infection and congestive heart failure. This case had AR accompanied with the subarterial type VSD, and aneurysmal formation of the Valsalva sinus and its rupture, and also revealed progressive infective endocarditis of the aortic and pulmonary valves, which resulted in severe cardiac failure. Early and appropriate surgical treatment for the ruptured aneurysm of the Valsalva sinus is required for a better prognosis prior to prevent exacerbation leading to infective endocarditis and critical heart failure.

Objective: Extract from cultured Lentinula edodes mycelia (L.E.M.) is a food ingredient possessing various pharmacologic actions such as immunomodulatory properties, antitumor and hepatoprotective effects. In Japan, it has been used as a health food for 30 years or more.
In the present study to evaluate the safety of L.E.M., a genotoxicity study and acute toxicity study were conducted. In addition, the inhibitory effect of drug-metabolizing enzyme by L.E.M. was tested in vitro, to gain insight on the interaction with medicines.
Methods: The genotoxicity study was performed using a bacterial reverse mutation assay and a in vivo mammalian bone marrow cell chromosomal mutation assay. The acute toxicity study was performed using a single-dose oral toxicity test in rats. Inhibitory activity of cytochrome P-450 3A4 (CYP3A4), one of the most important drug-metabolizing enzymes, by L.E.M. was tested using a baculovirus-expressed system.
Results: In the genotoxicity study, mutagenicity was negative for both bacterial reverse mutation assay and in vivo mammalian bone marrow cell chromosomal mutation assay. In the acute toxicity study, no toxic symptoms were observed by single dose oral administration of L.E.M. at a dose of 10,000 mg/kg BW in rats. This implies LD₅₀>10,000 mg/kg BW. No inhibitory activity of CYP3A4 by L.E.M. was observed at in the in vitro screening system to investigate drug-L.E.M. interaction.
Conclusion: It is believed L.E.M. is a safety ingredient for foods used in complementary and alternative medicine, since it was toxicologically safe and showed no inhibitory activity of CYP3A4 in the studies conducted.

The positional relation between the point Jingei and the bifurcation of the common carotid artery was investigated with dissection of the neck after inserting a needle into the bilateral Jingei, using nineteen Japanese cadavers. We determined first the position of the point Futotsu as a point in the sternocleidomastoid lying about 10cm lateral to the laryngeal prominence along the neck wrinkle, and defined the location of Jingei in the cadavers as the mid-point between the laryngeal prominence and Futotsu mentioned above. The common carotid artery shows a dilatation, termed the carotid sinus, at its point of division into the external and internal carotid arteries. The needle did not prick the carotid sinus in all of the thirty-eight cases of insertion; it pricked the common carotid artery at a lower level than the carotid sinus in four of these cases, and in the other cases the needle did not prick the vessel, but rather a portion of the neck medial to the vessel at the lower level, similarly as in the former cases. The points of division of the common carotid arteries of the cadavers dissected were all located at a considerably higher level than the laryngeal prominence; the average level was 32.8mm higher than the prominence on the left, with maximum and minimum values of 52 and 11mm, respectively, and 29.9mm upper on the right (maximum and minimum values: 45 and 8mm). Furthermore, it was suggested that the insertion of a needle at the level of the hyoid bone has a higher possibility of reaching the carotid sinus than that at the level of the laryngeal prominence in acupuncture of the sinus.